By Irit Shimrat - The Networker

Kids on Ritalin and similar drugs have been found to be 10 times more likely to perform below age level in school. Apart from increased [Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder] symptoms, they suffered from elevated blood pressure, motor abnormalities, liver disorder, tics, mania, [Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder] and paranoia and psychosis...Moreover, treating kids with stimulants sets them up for mood swings...["]He is diagnosed with bipolar affective disorder (BAD) and given a drug cocktail. He has begun a career as a mental patient."

By Martha Rosenberg - April 25, 2013

...[D]on't worry, Wall Street. Pharma isn't going to deliver disappointing earnings just because it has little or no new drugs coming online and has failed at the very reason for its existence. Here are six new Pharma marketing initiatives that are guaranteed to keep investor expectations high...The secret? Recycling old and discredited drugs and marketing diseases to sell the few new ones.

By Alex Kane - April 1, 2013

The number of children and teenagers diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has increased remarkably over the past decade...The rise in numbers...has led some to say that the increase is due to parent pressure on doctors and a loose definition of the disorder...Two-thirds of those diagnosed take stimulant medication for the disorder like Ritalin and Adderall, which could lead to anxiety, addiction and potentially psychosis.

By Martha Rosenberg - March 22, 2013

Do you fall asleep at night and wake up in the morning? Do you wake up…hungry for food? You may be suffering from……fill in the disease du jour...Selling symptoms to suggestible people has been a gold mine for Big Pharma since it started advertising directly to the consumer almost 15 years ago. Thanks to disease mongering ads, millions of people who were once fine now have depression, insomnia, season allergies, GERD and assorted attention and pain disorders.

By Tracy Weber and Charles Ornstein - AlterNet

Dr. Jon W. Draud...pursues some eclectic passions. He’s bred sleek Basenji hunting dogs for show...But the Nashville psychiatrist is also notable for a professional pursuit: During the last four years, the 47-year-old Draud has earned more than $1 million for delivering promotional talks and consulting for seven drug companies...21 other doctors have made more than $500,000 since 2009 giving talks and consulting for drug-makers...And half of the top earners are from a single specialty: psychiatry.

By Patricia J. Williams - February 18, 2013

Drugs are ubiquitous in this country, and yet we know that some people have the privilege of doctor-prescribed intoxication, while others are thrown into dungeons for seeking the same relief. We know that the war on drugs is heavily inflected with Jim Crow–ism, economic inequality, gun culture myths and political opportunism...We divert resources from mental health or rehab, and allocate millions to militarize schools...The result: the war on drugs has metastasized into a war on children.

By Laura Gottesdiener - AlterNet

They say that religion is the opiate of the masses, but it seems that the opiates of the religious are anti-depressants...Some states have startlingly medicated populations.

By Martha Rosenberg - February 2, 2013

Why does the suicide rate among military personnel continue to climb--even among those who never saw combat?...One in six service members was on a psychoactive drug in 2010 and "many troops are taking more than one kind, mixing several pills in daily 'cocktails' for example, an anti-depressant with an anti-psychotic to prevent nightmares, plus an anti-epileptic to reduce headaches--despite minimal clinical research testing such combinations..."

We've heard it all before. Media scoundrels hype fear. So do drug companies. Doing so boosts sales.

By JOE GIAMBRONE - Counterpunch Weekend Edition

...[P]sychiatric “treatment” consists primarily of trying various drugs on patients, having them report the way the drugs affected them, and then trying other drugs...This guinea pig approach to psychiatry is what I have witnessed for many years, and with a variety of different psychiatrists. They no longer seek out the underlying traumas of patients, as in the old quaint days. It is all about the drugs today, and nothing else is even discussed...Psychiatrists are corporate America’s drug pushers.

By Amanda Reiman - December 4, 2012

The rhetoric the public is fed by the government would have us believe that drugs are prohibited to protect the younger generation. But how can that be when the sanctions associated with the most commonly used illicit drug, marijuana, are creating more harm to young people than the drug itself ever could?...Zero-tolerance drug policies in high schools, undercover officers soliciting marijuana from teens and sanctions involving the removal of support for education and employment are forcing young people into a hopeless maze of poverty and the criminal justice system.

By Dave Zirin - November 29, 2012

State referenda earlier this month legalized small amounts of marijuana for personal use in Colorado and Washington State. These votes threaten to raise a massive legal and public relations headache for the NFL. Two of their teams, the Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks, now play in states where marijuana is legal. This could have implications for where players choose to go in free agency as well as how players desire to treat their injuries...The NFL is trying to nip this...in the bud.

By Jorge Rivas - Colorlines

Meet Matthew Fogg, a former U.S. Marshal whose exploits led him to be nicknamed “Batman.” When he noticed that all of his team’s drug raids were in black areas, he suggested doing the same in the suburbs.

By Martha Rosenberg - November 21, 2012

Sleeping pills like Ambien, Lunesta, Sonata, and Rozerem have been a gold mine for Pharma because everyone sleeps--or watches TV when they can’t. Ads convey unrealistic expectations for fall-to-sleep time and the pills do not necessarily even work. In FDA documents, one sleeping pill, Rozerem, was no better than a placebo. Still, its sales shot up by 60 percent thanks to TV advertising...

By Kristen Gwynne - AlterNet

Most Americans want pot to be legal...Nonetheless, the war on pot rages on. The Obama administration has actually increased raids on state-sanctioned medical pot programs...A review of some of the sentences over the past few decades...reveals the injustice of the drug war. Here's a rundown of the people who received the harshest penalties handed down for pot in recent history.